It is my pleasure to introduce you to the Internal Medicine Residency Program sponsored by the Allegheny General Hospital (AGH) - Western Pennsylvania Hospital (WPH) Medical Education Consortium, which was established as a distinct administrative unit on July 1, 2009, with the approval of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). Our program has a rich history, established in the proud traditions of the residency programs of AGH and WPH. Now entering our fifth year as a combined program, we enjoy the opportunity to seat the program within the newly developed integrated healthcare delivery system of Allegheny Health Network.

Our network is recognized regionally and nationally for excellence in quality clinical care, research, and education. Our trainees care for patients and learn, teach and perform scholarly work in an environment that features specialty programs in all the specialties of internal medicine concordant with our status as a regional referral center serving the tri-state area and our affiliation with the renowned Allegheny-Singer Research Institute. We have designated Pittsburgh clinical campuses of Temple University School of Medicine and Drexel University College of Medicine. In addition, our Department of Medicine sponsors nine ACGME-accredited fellowship programs in addition to the core residency.

We prepare our residents for their careers with a broad range of core rotations with the opportunity to tailor elective experiences to individual interests. Our 4 + 1 block scheduling model ensures focus on both inpatient and outpatient rotations without distraction. We provide dedicated instruction in systems-based topics such as clinical effectiveness, improving value in clinical care, and patient safety, and we provide opportunities to participate in, and even lead, initiatives within the Department and the network. Along the way, every one of our residents performs scholarly work, with a great number going on to present abstracts at national meetings or publish manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. The balanced, broad range of career paths adopted by our graduates includes fellowship training in all specialties of internal medicine, primary care, and hospitalist training and is a testament to the breadth and depth of clinical experiences and opportunities for mentorship that our curriculum provides.

Most importantly, we provide our residents with a friendly environment and a supportive atmosphere here in Pittsburgh, one of the country’s most livable and beautiful cities. Our program has a unique sense of camaraderie and shared purpose, enriched by the diversity of backgrounds and experiences our residents bring with them. We handle the joys and stresses of life and training together as a family, taking our work seriously but hopefully not taking ourselves too seriously, and always looking out for each other. For more details on who we are and the exceptional training experience we can offer you, please explore our website, and also our Facebook page! I look forward to the prospect of seeing you here this interview season.

Our residency program accepts applications through the AAMC’s Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) and we also participate in the National Residency Matching Program. ERAS collects the required materials and then transmits these documents from your medical school to our residency program.

Our application deadline is Dec. 31; however, we strongly encourage applicants to submit their applications by the end of October since our interview schedule fills quickly.

While Deans’ letters are not released until Nov. 1, we begin reviewing applications that are otherwise complete in late September and will begin notifying applicants of interviews as applications are reviewed.

Please provide the following documents to ERAS:

Completed application

Personal statement

Curriculum vitae

Official transcript from your medical school

Dean’s letter

Three letters of recommendation (at least one from a specialist in internal medicine)

USMLE Board score results

We do not require any materials beyond those to be submitted to ERAS and we ask that you do not send any additional material unless we request them from you directly.

USMILE & COMPLEX Scores
We expect that applicants will have passed USMLE or COMLEX Step I before applying. Step II and Step II-CS must be passed before entering our program, even if results are not available at the time of application. Those applying through the AOA match may submit USMLE scores in addition to COMLEX, if applicable, but it is not required.

Clinical Experience
We encourage graduates of international medical schools (IMG) to submit letters of recommendation from mentors within the U.S. who have observed their clinical work whenever possible, especially in the field of internal medicine. Please note: ECFMG certificates, when appropriate, must be current prior to the Match.

Nondiscrimination Policy
It is our policy to adhere to the guidelines published by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) regarding selection of our applicants.
We select eligible applicants based on preparedness, ability, previous record, aptitude, academic credentials, accomplishments, communication skills, motivation, and integrity. We do not discriminate with regard to sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, disability, or any other applicable legally protected status.

Our mission is to cultivate residents who will become exemplary physicians as measured by their passion, social responsibility, ethical behavior, humanism and tolerance. Such qualities will enable them to reach their full potential as professionals and individuals committed to better serve their patients and communities.

To achieve our mission, we will develop our residents by inspiring leadership, fostering intellectual curiosity, providing professional role models and educating across the spectrum of patient care.

We will accomplish this mission through the following guiding principles:

All residents in our program will train in the STAR (Simulation, Teaching, and Academic Research) Center multiple times per academic year. Located on the West Penn Hospital campus, this world-class training facility uses the latest in simulation technology to provide controlled learning scenarios for participants.

The center’s “virtual hospital” environment includes several training rooms, numerous programmable manikin simulators and task trainers, and a host of other equipment to simulate a wide variety of patient care scenarios.

Our Health Sciences Library contains more than 11,000 volumes, maintains subscriptions to 166 journals, and offers all major indices and citation retrieval services on-site to support clinical, educational, and research activities of residents and medical staff members. It is supervised by a full-time medical librarian who provides individualized teaching and assistance to residents and it offers online bibliographic services and individualized literature searches.

House staff may also use the Department of Medicine's computer library, which contains reference material recommended by the American College of Physicians and houses personal computers that are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for use by residents in conducting on-line literature searches. UpToDate, MicroMedex and more than 150 online journals are available at work or from home.

We help our residents interested in subspecialties to network with teaching subspecialists in our Department of Medicine and encourage residents interested in one or more of these subspecialties to take elective rotations.